The Pumpkin
by FeatherSong1323
Summary: Little do they know, the carriage turned into a pumpkin a while ago...but maybe the pumpkin is just another carriage in disguise. These are the adventures of Hikaru and Kaoru with their new friend Emma...but what changes will she bring about? And will our favorite twins be ready for them? HikaXOC, also some TamaXHaru and KyoyaXOC. I would suggest reading my Shadow King story first.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone! FeatherSong here. Some of you may know me from my other two Ouran stories. (As you can see, I can't stay away.) To those of you who have read *takes large breath* Discovery of the Heart of the Shadow King, you should be pretty much caught up on this. For those that haven't, if you did it would make a lot more sense, but if you don't want to that's cool (you little rebel you). I think I gave enough here for a general understanding. This is probably going to look like a long series of one shots, but I promise it actually has a storyline. So, without further ado, here ya go!**

"_I cannot believe we're doing this."_ Hikaru thought to himself with a grin. He wouldn't even have thought of half of this crap. Alarm clocks were going off every ten minutes, around twenty random people were walking around with tampons and/or condoms in their shopping carts (unbeknownst to them), mannequins were dressed like they had come out of a bad game of truth or dare, and he was hiding in an empty storage bin peeking out at a full scale battle of around a hundred toys set up in the middle of a store aisle.

How had he ended up here?

_Earlier that morning…_

"How d'ya think this works?" he asked Kaouru. He was staring at a panel of buttons on a wall next to a door, with little labels next to each one. 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B…

Kaouru shrugged. "Beats me. What did she say again?"

"Something about apartment number 4…"

"Well, may as well try this one, then." Hikaru shrugged, pressing the button labeled "4."

"Hello?" the voice of a young-ish boy came through a speaker.

The twins looked at each other and shrugged. "Is this the Flynn residence?" they asked, in their well-practiced "polite" voices.

"Yeah, who's this?"

"The Hitachiin brothers!" they said, switching over to their somewhat cocky selves again.

"Ohhhkay…" the voice came back. "Come on up, I guess."

They gave each other an eyebrow, but pulled the door open and climbed the stairs, opening the door on the fourth landing. The commoner's apartment was small, but not as small as Haruhi's. It was actually pretty nice looking, as commoner's places went.

"We're heeeeere!" they announced, holding their arms out in typical host fashion.

A boy with messy blond hair poked his head into the room from around the corner. "And…you would be the Hitachiin brothers?" he asked quizzically, strolling into the room. He was still wearing his pajamas, and was holding a game system in one hand.

"Yes, and you are?" they asked.

"Ricky. Do you guys ever speak, like, separately?"

"Sometimes." they said, together.

Ricky quirked an eyebrow, but sat down and started playing his game without another word.

"Hey how old are you, kid?" Hikaru asked.

"Almost fourteen." he replied, not looking up.

They nodded at each other. So this was Emma's little brother Errick, the dorky genius one she'd mentioned a few times.

"What game is that?" Kaouru asked curiously.

"Pokemon."

"Which one? We've beaten them all." They said, sitting on either side of him.

"Uhh…Platinum."

"Pfft. Easy." they said dismissively.

"Yeah, I just got it, it hasn't been too difficult."

"By just got it, you mean…" Hikaru asked.

"Yesterday."

They nodded. "Impressive."

Suddenly, an alarm started beeping in another room. "Crap." Ricky looked up. "I meant to turn that off…" he got up and walked into said room.

They were somewhat surprised when Kyoya walked in a few seconds later, from the same hallway Ricky had just walked into. He stopped short, apparently a bit more surprised than them. "What are you two doing here?"

"We might ask you the same question." they teased, knowing full well that he was here for Ella Flynn, Emma's older sister.

"I'm here for my girlfriend?" he said, raising an eyebrow as if to restate his previous question.

"We're here for Emma." Kaouru explained.

"We're hanging out with her today." Hikaru added.

"Just the three of you?" Kyoya asked, bearing an odd expression, something akin to worry.

"Yeah why?" they asked together.

"Nothing, just feel that the world should be concerned…" he muttered, making the twins snicker. They could only hope that whatever Emma had planned involved getting themselves into trouble.

At that moment, Emma Flynn walked in from behind him. She was wearing flowered shorts, glittery converse, and a plain, flowy tank top, and her long, straight blond hair bouncing behind her with every step. She was grinning mischeviously (which made the twins grin too.) They stood when they saw her.

She flicked Kyoya on the ear as she breezed by him, meriting a small frown and narrowed eyes from him. (They had a rather interesting relationship with each other.) "Later, Kyoya." she said.

The twins fell into step behind her on the way out the door. "Byeee!" they called behind them.

"Good morning, boys." Emma said, regarding the two.

"Morning, Emma!" they said.

The boys had known Emma for about a month now: She was a first year, a commoner on scholarship for swimming, and a transfer student from America. They had met her through her older sister, Ella, who was the club's official cosplay organizer, and Kyoya's girlfriend. (That's an entirely different story.) Emma came on as the club's "sometimes-techie" after a large debacle with the Lobelia Girls' Academy concerning Ella and Kyoya's relationship. (But that, again, is another story.) Emma was just as much a troublemaker as they were: She could hold her own with them and even came up with stuff that they didn't. She could make them laugh and sometimes even gave them a run for their money, trouble wise. When they first met her, they had intended to make her their new "toy," but after getting to know her, she proved impossible to tame and much more valuable than that, anyway.

"What do you have planned for us on this fine spring Saturday?" Kaouru asked.

"Yeah, more fun commoner stuff?" Hikaru added.

Emma laughed mischievously. "Yeah, something like that. Boys, we're going to the mall."

They each quirked an eyebrow. "Shopping?"

"No offense, Emma.." Kaouru began.

"But that's not really the kind of thing we had in mind when you said "fun."" Hikaru finished bluntly.

She elbowed him. "Don't get your panties in a bunch. We're not going there to shop." she then looked from side to side. "Wait, if we're spending all day together you have to tell me who is who."

The boys grinned at each other. "Let's play the which one is Hik—"

"No." she said with a small smile. "I have no freaking clue how to tell who is who, I'm not playing your silly little game for the umpteenth time."

"Oh, c'mon, Emma!"

"Yeah, you've got a fifty-fifty shot."

"Nope." she crossed her arms. "You tell me."

"Nope."

They stared at each other with narrowed eyes. "We seem to have reached an impasse." they said.

"Hey guys!" The three turned to see Tamaki and Haruhi approaching.

"Uh-oh, here comes drama." Emma said under her breath with a smirk. "And Haruhi too!" something about this made Hikaru lose it.

"What's so funny, Hikaru?" Haruhi asked.

"HA!" Emma said, pointing. "Hikaru is the one in the red t-shirt, and Kaouru is the one in the green v-neck!"

Hikaru sobered quickly. "Haaaruhiiiiiii!" the two whined.

"What?" she asked, confused.

"You spoiled our game!" Hikaru pouted.

"Whoops, sorry." Haruhi said sarcastically.

Emma flicked him. "Quit pouting, ya baby."

"So what are the three of you up to today?" Tamaki said cheerily.

"Going to the mall, apparently." Kaouru said, giving Emma a sidelong glance. She just smirked.

Haruhi eyed them suspiciously. "Well, alright…I guess we'll be going, then…"

"Seeya later!" the three said together, waving goodbye as they continued in opposite directions.

"Have a splendid day!" they heard Tamaki call.

"Now seriously, what are we doing at the mall?" Hikaru asked.

Emma grinned. "We're gonna get kicked out."

_Later…_

It was apparently something she and her friends had done back in America, in some superstore called Wal-Mart. Doing crazy stuff, seeing how much you could do before getting kicked out. So, that was how they had ended up having wrapping paper sword fights, playing tag, throwing pillows and jumping on mattresses, and, most importantly, how he had ended up in this empty toy bin.

This was actually the most fun he'd had in a while. Something about when Tamaki started dating Haruhi…just had him in a kind of 'fun' rut. He hadn't felt like himself, but when they were with Emma, he kind of just forgot about all of that crap, and finally had fun again. Today was the first time he had felt totally free of all of that stress.

The lid to his bin finally opened. "Hey! Found him!" Emma's grinning face looked down at him.

Hikaru grinned back. "Funny that you found me and not Kaouru." he said, taking Emma's hand to get out of the bin. His balance was a bit off, though, and he ended up falling right on top of her.

"Oof!"

"Are you okay?" he asked, somewhat urgently.

She laughed. "I'm fine, now get off, you klutz."

"Hikaru!" Kaouru cried, pulling his brother up. "Are you alright?"

He chuckled. "Yeah, I'm—"

"There you are!" they all turned in surprise to find a security guard storming towards them. "So YOU'RE the troublemakers that have been lurking around all day!"

They looked at each other. "Uh oh." they said.

"The four of us are going to take a little trip to mall jail." he said, smirking.

"How often do you think he gets to do this?" Emma mumbled with a smirk, regarding the somewhat portly mall cop.

"It's his shining moment!" Hikaru replied sarcastically.

"Guys. I don't really want to go to mall jail." Kaouru interrupted.

"You're right." Hikaru agreed.

Emma grinned wider. "RUN!" she yelled suddenly, and they took off, leaving the panting security guard running far behind them.

Kaouru watched his brother laughing freely with Emma a couple of feet ahead of him as they ran. _"It's nice to see him out of that funk." _he thought with a smile. He couldn't help but think that if it weren't for Emma, it would have lasted a lot longer.

He chuckled to himself as they stopped to catch their breath just outside of the mall. "We should do this again sometime." Hikaru said with sarcasm, making Emma laugh breathlessly.

"_Yeah," _Kaouru thought to himself, seeing his brother's carefree smile. _"We really should."_

**So yeah! There it is! Goshers I hope you guys liked it, writing for the twins proved a lot more difficult than writing for Kyoya! I will update again soon, but for now, reviews would be lovely, if you have input or ideas or whatever I will GLADLY accept, aaaand...yeah! That's it! See ya soon!**

**-FeatherSong**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello all, I'm back! Somewhat of an uneventful setup chapter for ya today, sorry. :-/**

**BUT! It's question-answering time! (Oh and thank you valcoria fallen for correcting my spelling of Kaoru. Whoops!) **

**AliSkywalker626 asked if I was Emma! I am not. Emma is actually [very] loosely based on my younger sister. Ella is technically "me," (because I'm kind of in love with Kyoya...that's pretty much how my first story got started).**

**KerrolynWolf asked if I was going to make a story for Mori and Honey too...and you caught me! I am. Kinda. If you read my next gen story, there are some spoilers: I'm keeping Honey with his eventual wife from the manga, Reiko from the Black Magic Club, because I like that pairing. I might breifly make up how they meet in this universe. But YES, there IS an oc fir Mori, and oh my goodness I love her to death and cannot wait for that. So yeah, this is going to get even MORE complicated...but hopefully you're as excited as I am.**

**Haha so yeah hey anyway here's the chapter. **

It was just another normal spring day at the Host Club, each Host surrounded by gaggles of giggling girls, tea being sipped and treats being munched on. Honey and Mori were at their favorite little table, with a Ella's friend Mizune and another girl.

"I just love this time of year!" exclaimed the other one, a redhead named Akida. "The cherry blossoms in full bloom are just so beautiful and romantic, don't you think?"

Her company nodded enthusiastically. "I wanna go outside and make crowns out of all of them, so the four of us can wear them together and be all matchy!" Honey giggled.

"Perhaps you could sport those at the ball this Friday night." the group looked up to see a smiling Kyoya with his new blue notebook. "It's this Friday night. Can I put you ladies down as attending?"

"Oh, that's right, Kyo-chan, I completely forgot about the ball!" Honey said.

"I'll be there for sure." Mizune said with a laugh. "Ella would be on my case if I weren't."

He chuckled. "That she would." he agreed. "And you, Miss Torokuji?" he said, turning to Akida.

She smiled up at him. "Well, sure, why not? Sounds like fun!"

Kyoya nodded and wrote her down as well. "Excellent."

"Well, that settles it then!" Honey said. "I am making us all flower crowns for Friday night!"

The two girls clapped in appreciation as he took a dramatic bow. Then Mizune looked up. "Hey, Kyoya, where _is_ Ella anyway?"

He chuckled and pointed to his desk in the corner, where Ella was bent over a stack of papers with a pencil, Renge looking over her shoulder. "She's working on either the cosplay for our picnic on Thursday afternoon, or our outfits for the Ball. Or possibly the decorations. She's been a busy girl this week."

Mizune laughed. "Oh, that explains what she was working on in choir today."

Kyoya nodded, then looked at his watch. "Well, it would appear our time is up for today." he stepped over to the door and opened it up. "Unfortunately, my dears, the time has come for us to part yet again." This was, as usual, met with a small chorus of sad voices. "I hope that we'll see you all again on Thursday for our cosplay picnic in the cherry blossoms. I'm sure Ella will have whipped up something fantastic as usual." he gestured over to her corner, where she looked up, dazed, for a moment, waved, then bent back over her work. "And there is still room to sign up to attend our third annual Cherry Blossom Ball this Friday night. Please feel free to bring a guest. After all, what's more romantic than dancing with that special someone in the midst of floating cherry blossom petals?"the girls sighed and began leaving, and he glanced quickly over at his "special someone."

_Over at the desk…_

"…no, no, that won't work, that has nothing to do with flowers." Ella said in exasperation.

"Well, fine, let's go back to this later then, since _clearly_ we cannot agree on anything. Let's work on…"

"Alright team!" Renge was interrupted by Tamaki's excited voice. "Club meeting, on the couch!"

The two grimaced at each other and joined the rest of the group.

"Now," Tamaki began once everyone was seated. "It's time to discuss our events for the rest of the week! Oh, I'm so excited I can barely contain myself!" he babbled.

Kyoya rolled his eyes and covered Tamaki's mouth before he could start on one of his speeches. "Renge, since you and Ella have been working so diligently on this, why don't you decide where we start?"

She gave him a somewhat nervous smile. "Thank you, Kyoya." she cleared her throat. "Why don't we start with the logistics of Friday night?"

"Sounds splendid!" Tamaki said, Kyoya having removed his hand.

She cleared her throat again. "Uh, okay. We were thinking, as usual, a lot of pink. Streamers and stuff, you know."

"But we also thought, since we have the ability now, that we could put on a cool little light show once we're outside, like with sparkles and fog and stuff. To accentuate all the petals floating in the air."

Tamaki went starry-eyed. "Oh that sound simply marvelous!" he cried.

"Then we'll need an electronic board, some spotlights, a fog machine, a few pounds of glitter…" Kyoya began making a list.

"Uh, we'll also need someone _operating _the lights." Hikaru pointed out, his arms crossed.

"Oh, yeah, where's Emma?" Kaoru wondered, looking around.

As if on cue, the doors opened, and a somewhat damp Emma Flynn stepped into the room wearing a robe and flip flops, gym bag slung over one shoulder.

"And where have you been?" Hikaru asked impatiently.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I was taking a dip in the fountain. Where do you think I was?"

"You're late for the meeting." Kaoru explained.

"I was at a swim meet." she said, shrugging and sitting down on the floor.

"I thought your race was over a while ago." Kaoru said in confusion. "When you invited us you said it was right in the middle of club business hours."

"Well, yeah, I stayed to cheer on the boys' team." she said. "We all did. You know, to see which team won the meet overall."

"Hmmph." Hikaru crossed his arms.

She gave him a look. "What?"

"Well, I just think that considering it's one of the busiest weeks of the year for the Host Club, you'd take your responsibilities into consideration before you went to watch some overly muscular guys in speedos swim back and forth in a pool."

Emma's eyes widened, then narrowed considerably.

"Hikaru…" Kaoru whispered disapprovingly.

"Who did win the meet, Emma?" Haruhi asked quickly, hoping to diffuse the tension.

It worked, kind of. Emma was snapped out of her rage and looked over at Haruhi. "Well, overall, the other guys did." she said in disappointment. "But our girls creamed theirs."

"Oh, good job then!" Kaoru said, giving her a high five. He shot a glare to Hikaru after she looked away.

"Yeah, good for you guys." Hikaru said, mustering up all the enthusiasm he could, giving her a somewhat weak thumbs-up.

"Now, catch me up, nerd." she said, smirking as she turned to Kyoya.

He rolled his eyes and ignored the name. "We are going to require your assistance Friday night at the Cherry Blossom Ball. Renge and Ella have cooked up a little light show, and your tech experience would put you at the head of the team."

She turned to her sister and Renge with confusion, which was matched on Renge's face.

"Who?" they both said.

Tamaki laughed. "Of course, how silly of us! The two of you haven't been introduced. "Emma, this is Renge, the club's manager. Renge, this is Emma, Ella's little sister, our technical consultant!"

Renge's eye twitched. She slowly turned to Tamaki.

He gulped. "Uh oh." he squeaked.

"HOW MANY POSITIONS ARE YOU GOING TO JUST MAKE UP TO ADD NEW MEMBERS TO YOUR CLUB WILLY-NILLY?" she yelled.

"MOMMY SHE'S BEING SCARY AGAIN!" Tamaki cried, hiding behind Kyoya.

"How is it that everybody around here can just turn into little tiny chubby people or turn their hair into snakes and get fangs and red eyes whenever they want?" Emma wondered aloud. "And who is mommy?"

"You get used to it." Ella whispered, leaning over. "And apparently based on club position, "mommy" is Kyoya."

"Though I question the validity of that family metaphor anymore." Kaoru tacked on. "I mean, that would make us pretty incestuous at this point."

"This coming from _you?_" Emma said, looking at him and rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, have you seen your hosting technique?" Ella added.

"Renge, once again, I must point out that as club president, Tamaki can do whatever he wants." Kyoya said calmly, the side conversation having gone unnoticed by him and the rest of the club.

She sat back down on the couch and crossed her arms, snake hair, fangs, and red eyes disappearing. "I just think it would be polite to consult with me every once in a while." she mumbled.

"Maybe if you showed up more often this wouldn't be a problem." Kyoya laughed cooly.

"Hmmph!" she was defeated.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Emma said, glaring over at Hikaru. "I've been here for like a month and I've never seen Renge before! How come you're not yelling at her?"

"Uhh…" he pressed his lips together. "She's been here this week…that's what I meant…." he said (or maybe asked).

Emma rolled her eyes. "Okay." she said sarcastically. She turned back to Kyoya, Ella, and Renge. "So what do you need me to do?"

"You'll be directing a light show in the outdoor part of the evening." Renge explained. "It's gotta be really good, so you'd better bring you're A-game!"

"It's meant to accentuate the floating cherry blossom petals." Ella added.

"A whole light show?" she said in surprise. "Um, guys, I don't think you realize that I'm gonna need help to put on a whole light show. It's not like that whole Lobelia-Phantom-Takeover deal."

"What?!" Renge pouted. "I miss everything…."

"Well, I can help you out." Haruhi volunteered. "By the end of that show last time, I think I had gotten the hang of it."

"Okay." Emma said. "Anyone else?"

"I'm sure learning will be no problem for me!" Renge said with excitement. "I'm used to being on the stage, I may never have the chance to experience techie work again!" she finished dramatically.

"Well, that's settled, then." Kyoya said, making one final note in his book, then clicking his pen and looking back over at his girlfriend and the manager. "What's next?"

The girls looked at each other and laughed nervously. "Well, um…" Ella began.

"We don't exactly have…" Renge continued.

"That is, we can't quite agree on…"

"That's all we've got." they said.

"But we're not gonna stop until we can at least agree on Thursday!" Ella assured them.

"Although…" Renge looked over at Ella, who sighed.

"We could use some help." she admitted.

And thus the whole club started throwing ideas at them, all at once.

Kyoya got up and wandered over to where Kaoru was.

"Did you notice that, earlier?" he asked discreetly, looking over at Hikaru.

"How could I not?" he said.

"Do you think…?"

Kaoru shook his head. "Too soon to tell. But it does all seem very familiar."

Kyoya nodded. "Familiar indeed…" he said. "We'll just have to keep our eyes on him."

Kaoru nodded. _"If it is…I hope it goes better this time."_ he thought.

**Okie dokie, that's it for now. I'll write again soon! Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys! Sorry, it's been a little while. I've just been a little down and unmotivated lately, but I'm feeling better now, hence the new and cheery chapter! It's a little short, my apologies, it was a bit of a necessary lead-in. Still, some fun stuff in here! Read on! :)**

Thursday afternoon, the gardens were full of excited Host Club guests, reveling in the beautiful cherry blossom trees—and the unusual way in which their favorite hosts were dressed.

"Why Tamaki, you're covered in cherry blossom leaves, but they don't hide much at all, do they?" One girl blushed and looked away. In truth, Tamaki was pretty well covered, but parts of his chest and much of his legs were bare, and girls had been practically fainting at the sight of him all day.

"Does it bother you, my dear? I only hoped to bare my skin in this way as a symbol of how I bare my soul…to you." (This line was met with uncontrollable squealing, naturally.)

"Hiiiii ladies!" Honey, dressed in an outfit that greatly resembled a cherry blossom bud, rode in on the shoulders of his cousin, who was dressed in something akin to a military uniform made of leaves. Both donned identical flower crowns, and Honey threw a few more into the air to be caught by his guests.

"Thank you, Honey!"

"You look so cute!"

"My, Mori, all the club members make wearing fairy wings seem natural, but you somehow make them so manly!"

Mori nodded gratefully and set Honey down.

"Hi Honey." Honey smiled extra wide as he was made to notice the presence of his new (secret) favorite customer, a girl named Reiko who had used to be in the black magic club. She had recently started visiting Honey more, and her disposition had gone from sour to a little more sunny every time she visited.

"Heya, Reiko! I wish I had known you were coming, I would've made you a flower crown too!"

She shook her head. "That's okay." He giggled in reply.

"Wow, Haruhi, you look just like a girl in that cherry blossom fairy queen dress!"

"So pretty!"

"Gee, thanks ladies." Haruhi said with a smile. "It was all Ella's idea, she and Renge put this together pretty quick."

The girls simultaneously looked up and smiled. "Great job, Ella!"

"Where is Renge, anyway?" Haruhi asked.

Ella laughed. "Her father is visiting today, so they're spending it together. She'll be back by tomorrow night."

"By the way, ladies," Kyoya appeared out of nowhere with his notebook. "The outfits you see will all be for sale on the club's website after today. If you're interested I would recommend taking a look."

There was some excited chatter from Haruhi's guests. Meanwhile, Ella pulled Kyoya aside, grinning at him. "You look very very…nice…in your outfit…Kyoya."

He smirked and narrowed his eyes. "I'm not a host anymore, you know. I don't know what your purpose was in putting me in such a…revealing outfit."

Ella giggled. "Don't be a prude, it's not _that _revealing."

"Not compared to Tamaki, no, but Tamaki's not wearing much of anything besides a skirt and some wings."

"And you have a six pack, I had no idea…" Ella grinned at him, ignoring the question.

He bent to whisper in her ear. "What happened to my sweet, innocent little Ella?" he asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about." she pulled away and crossed her arms, barely concealing her smirk.

He chuckled. "I hate to change the subject my dear, but have you spoken to your sister recently?"

She raised an eyebrow. "Uh, we live together, we share a bedroom, yes, I have spoken to her."

He rolled his eyes. "No, I meant about subjects pertaining to, say…her love life?"

She made a face at him. "Why do you ask…?"

"Well, I have a theory I've been working on, and I think your insight would be helpful in confirming it."

She was still looking at him strangely. "No…no, she doesn't really talk to me about that stuff…"

He raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Really? I was under the impression that it was part of the inherent bond of sisterhood to share such things."

She laughed at him. "You sound like Tamaki!"

He frowned. "Then what do the two of you talk about?"

"Mostly? TV shows we both like. Movies. Celebrities. What's your theory?"

He shook his head and chuckled. "Still too soon."

"You think she likes one of the twins? I dunno…I dunno. She kinda almost avoids romance when she can. So even if she did…"

Kyoya nodded with a frown. "That's a shame. Because I do get the feeling that Hikaru has feelings for her…and he's also rather reluctant with romance."

Her eyes suddenly lit up, and she grinned mischievously. "Maybe we'll just have to speed things along."

He looked down at her, smiling with suspicion. "What has gotten into you lately?"

_Meanwhile…_

"Wow, Hikaru and Kaoru, your costumes are so great!"

"Yeah, I just love the flower petal skirts, they look strangely masculine on you guys!"

"Well, thanks girls." Kaoru said with a smile. He looked over at Hikaru, expecting an incestuous comment that would make the girls squeal, but he got nothing. His brother was looking over his shoulder with his brow furrowed. Kaoru frowned, then turned back to the girls. He needed to be able to talk to his brother somewhat privately. "So, what do you girls plan on wearing to the ball tomorrow night?"

It worked as he had thought: With the surplus of girls at the table today, they all began talking over each other, and eventually to each other. Kaoru wasn't even a necessary part of the conversation anymore.

"Hey." he whispered to Hikaru. "What's the matter with you?"

"She's late. She should have been here by now."

Kaoru furrowed his brow. "Who?"

Hikaru turned to him in surprise. "What do you mean, who, doofus?"

"Oh! Emma. Hikaru, why are you so worried about her? She's fifteen, not five. She can take care of herself."

"I just don't like it." he said, arms crossed. "She runs around with those buffed up swimming guys, wearing a bathing suit…they're probably all staring at her when she's not looking…"

Kaoru laughed at him. "Hikaru, you're being ridiculous. They're just her friends, and geez, she doesn't just walk around in her swimsuit all the time."

"Yeah, well…she's neglecting her duties to this club!"

"What duties? She's the technical director; she doesn't really need to be here today."

"Yeah well…pfft."

Kaoru rolled his eyes. Yes, everything from his first suspicion up til now confirmed it: Hikaru had a crush on Emma.

It wasn't that hard for him to accept: After Haruhi, this seemed pretty easy, actually. He liked a girl. Good. About time, really. He had spent enough time sulking over Haruhi. He really kind of wanted to see them get together, but…Hikaru was pretty stubborn and oblivious. There had to be a way to…

"Hey, uh, Kaoru!" he turned around to see Ella standing behind him.

"Yeah?"

"Could you come here for a minute? I need to, uh, fix your costume."

He looked over at Hikaru. They both shrugged. "Uh, okay. Excuse me, girls."

Ella grabbed his arm and practically dragged him behind the biggest cherry blossom tree, where Kyoya was waiting. Ella turned to him and grinned.

"Uh, guys, what's going on?"

"We have a plan!" Ella said, grin splitting her face.

"Huh?"

Kyoya sighed with a smile. "What my overly-excited other half means is that we were just speaking, and considering the fact that we believe Hikaru is developing feelings for—"

"HAS feelings for Emma, yes, go on." Kaoru interrupted.

The couple looked at each other in surprise before Kyoya continued. "Well, given this situation, and the fact that according to Ella, Emma requires some amount of—"

"A LOT of pushing when it comes to romance." Ella interrupted.

Kyoya rolled his eyes. "Yes, okay. Anyway, given this situation, Ella and I thought the three of us could cook up some sort of scheme to…push them along."

Kaoru considered this, then smiled. "Yeah, I guess that's a good idea. Otherwise we could be waiting around for this to happen all year and then some."

Ella clapped her hands. "Yay, so it's settled! Now, how are we going to pull this off?"

"Well, I was wondering if we should perhaps involve the rest of the club in this?" Kyoya asked Kaoru. "We tend to get much more done together."

Kaoru frowned. "Well…okay." he said, somewhat reluctantly. "But…we should come up with something first…so the boss doesn't get involved with planning."

Kyoya nodded and chuckled, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Yes, I believe that would be better for our budget."

"We have a budget for this?" Ella asked incredulously.

"I set aside a certain amount of money for the random acts of kindness we sometimes perform. Although I doubt we'll be needing it in this situation."

"So when do we wanna do this?" Kaoru asked.

"The sooner the better!" Ella replied excitedly.

"Why don't we make it…tomorrow night? At the ball?" Kyoya asked.

Ella's eyes got very wide and starry. "THAT'S SO CUTE OHMIGOD IT'S LIKE A FAIRY TALE OH MY GOD GUYS WE HAVE TO!"

"Now who sounds like Tamaki…" Kyoya said with a chuckle.

Kaoru laughed. "Well, okay, sure, why not."

"Alright, it's settled then." Kyoya's glasses flashed, and a devious smile appeared on his face. "Now it's time to get to work."

**OOOOOOOOH they're making a plan...sounds like fun! And/or trouble! We'll have to wait and see!**

**So sorry to ask for help in this way, but my Next Generation story could use some help. See, I need character submissions to continue! The details are in the last chapter of that one. If you don't mind some mild spoilers on this series, or, better, if you're already reading it, and you wanted to send me a couple, I'd be so so grateful! If you don't, dont' worry, I still love you:)**

**Anyway, read and review if you so please, thanks so much, love you guys dearly!**

**-FeatherSong**


End file.
